1. Field of Invention
This invention relates generally to motorized toy vehicles, and in particular to a toy "crash" car which upon frontal impact with a wall or other obstruction causes the front wheels to become skewed and in other respects simulates a crash and its consequences, the normal appearance of the car being restored simply by closing the side doors which are outflung in the crash.
2. Status of the Art
Motorized toy vehicles are popular with children, for in play the child can maneuver the car and thereby imitate an adult activity. Play acting sometimes takes a destructive form in that a typical child not only enjoys operating a toy in its intended manner but he also takes a certain delight in wrecking the toy. The dismantling of a toy does not usually reflect misbehavior on the part of the child, but an expression of natural curiosity. Thus a child who takes a mechanical watch apart is not trying to destroy the watch, but is seeking to learn how it works.
Play constitutes the earliest form of education, for by manipulating toys, by playing house, and by pretending to carry out various adult activities, the child acquires basic skills preparatory to more mature activity. And since in the adult world, automobiles sometimes become involved in accidents and may be wrecked, a child playing with a toy car may attempt to simulate a real car crash and deliberately crash his toy vehicle into a wall or other obstruction just to see what happens.
With a conventional toy car, the player cannot have his cake and eat it, for once this car is crashed and badly damaged, it is no longer operable. In order, therefore, to provide a player with a toy car that can be crashed without being permanently disabled, so-called "crash" cars have been developed and marketed. In such cars, some of the components such as doors, headlights and bumpers are loosely mounted so that when the vehicle is run into a wall, these components fall off and thereby simulate a crash.
There are a number of practical drawbacks to a "crash" car of this known type. First, because the components necessary to simulate a crash are loosely mounted on the vehicle, they tend to fall off even when the child plays with the car in an ordinary way.
Second, when the vehicle is crashed, the loosely mounted components may scatter in various directions and the child may not be able to retrieve all of the components. Thus, when the car is reassembled, one or more of the components may be missing, and with continued use even more may be missing, so that it is no longer possible to restore the vehicle to its normal condition. Moreover, the need to reassemble the car after each crash becomes a tedious task and the child may lose interest in the toy.
The Kennedy et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,588,386 provides a toy vehicle which upon front impact simulates a crash without, however, the loss of any component of the vehicle and without the need to reassemble the vehicle in order to restore it to its normal state. The vehicle disclosed in the Kennedy et al. patent has a chassis, a body thereon defined by a front hood section having a simulated bumper prow, an intermediate cockpit section accommodating a hinged side door, and a rear trunk section having a trunk lid hinged thereon. The intermediate and rear sections are rigid and attached to the chassis, whereas the front section is resilient and free of the chassis. Slidable along the chassis is a sled whose front end is attached to the prow, a coil spring urging the sled to a retracted position in which the front section is deformed to assume a crushed appearance.
The side door and the trunk lid are operatively coupled to the sled so that swinging them from their fully open to their closed positions advances the sled against the spring to an extended position which is held by a spring-biased detent and in which the car has a normal appearance. Impact shock releases the detent which frees the sled to return to its retracted position to impart a crushed appearance to the front, the door and lid then being outflung. By again closing the door and lid, the normal appearance of the car is restored.
In terms of simulating a realistic car crash and its consequences, what is lacking in the structure of the Kennedy et al. patent is the effect of a frontal impact on the front wheels of the car. What often happens in a crash in which the front of the car makes direct impact with a wall or other obstacle is a skewing of the front wheels, particularly if the car is moving at a fairly high speed. But in the Kennedy et al. crash car, the front wheels are mounted for rotation on a common axle, and these wheels are in no way affected by the impact. Also of background interest are the following prior art patents. U.S. Pat. Nos.:
1,363,891; 12/1920; Lovington
1,546,431; 7/1925; Brandt
2,597,094; 5/1952; Gutmann
2,757,482; 8/1956; Brown et al.
2,803,920; 8/1957; Salosky
3,176,429; 4/1965; Brown et al.
3,668,804; 6/1972; Winston
3,859,752; 1/1975; Morrison et al.
3,959,920; 6/1976; Ieda
4,114,312; 9/1978; Hendry
4,295,292; 10/1981; Fitzgerald et al.
4,508,521; 4/1985; Klimpert et al.